THE MAN behind the plan for the Stop & Shop project in Hyannis, engineer Steven Chouinard stands behind design at the site plan review last week. The rendering shows the new Stop & Shop (1) at right of a new connector Road at the junction with Bearses Way and Route 132 (2) coursing by the supermarket parking lot (3) and joining Attucks Lane (4) at the BJ’s entrance across the street (5). Traffic lights will control the flow at the intersection. Festival mall is at right (6).

The Super Stop & Shop proposal for Hyannis, at the juncture of Bearses Way and Route 132, on property between Route 132 and Attucks Lane, has cleared site plan review after tiptoeing through a permitting mine field for eight years and could be under construction in about nine months.

The plan for the nearly 70,000-square-foot structure on 12 acres encompassing about a dozen parcels remains faced with considerable tweaking that will, nonetheless, be handled administratively by the town building department as far as the site is concerned, requiring no further public airings before the site review panel.

Attorney Michael Ford, appearing last week before the review board for Atlantis Development LLC and Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., noted he first presented the proposal to that board in 2001, remarking with a slight grin, “I’m glad to be back.”

To which equally good-humored Building Commissioner Tom Perry replied in feigned astonishment, “Looks like we might get this done all in one decade.” Ford said that without any slowdowns, building should begin in nine months.

Noting he wouldn’t rehash all the various permitting and zoning “tortures” of the last eight years, Ford underscored that compromises were effected as a result of responses to the original plan by the public, town officials and the Cape Cod Commission, including the completed demolition of some buildings on the site and a few others to follow.

Changes to the plans have included facing the rear of the proposed supermarket to the north side of the abutting Festival Mall. Now the entrance will face a 297-space parking lot between the storefront and a proposed connector road linking Route 132 and Attucks Lane.

The town also wanted the new connector road to link with the entrance to BJ’s Wholesale store on Attucks Lane. Steven Chouinard, an engineer and project manager for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., of Worcester, said the plan was being revised to accomplish that, explaining with use of drawings how it will be done.

The modified plan would have the east end of the connector road line up with the BJ’s entrance across Attucks Lane. That intersection would then be controlled by traffic lights. It means shoppers coming out of Bearses Way, for example, could cross Route 132 into the Stop & Shop connector Road and continue on, if desired, to BJ’s and Attucks Lane, avoiding the longer loop using Phinney’s Lane.

Another issue to be resolved is which fire district will service the new shopping center – Barnstable or Hyannis – both of which bisect the property. The town requires only one be officially designated for safety and efficiency.

On this score, Barnstable District Fire Chief Robert Crosby suggested that another short road connect the Stop & Shop and the Festival Mall to ease access for fire apparatus.

“We have no problem with that,” Ford said. He said Festival Mall has been contacted about it, but there has been no reply.

Short of that, Crosby recommended an Opticon gate with universal key for use by either fire department for quick access. Opticon is the name of a seeing-eye system, as used on traffic lights, which can open gates for emergency vehicles as well as control traffic signals. He also suggested, because of the size of the store, two lock boxes rather than one that firefighters use to gain access to buildings in emergencies.

There were issues with placement of fire hydrants, decisions on who will plow access roads and what address the project will use in order to accommodate 9-1-1 calls without confusion, “another benefit of being in multiple fire districts,” Ford quipped.

A number of health and utilities issues were resolved as were decisions on extensive “green” buffer zones on Route 132 and Attucks Lane. Included as part of mitigation, Atlantis Development proposes to purchase the Nelson Coal and Oil Co. property and convert it into a parking park for bicycle riders.

Ford said the plan has to now go before the Town Council for approval to connect the connector road to Attucks Lane. The council has previously approved the general development plan.

The site plan review board last week also put on the administrative track another project aligned with the Stop & Shop venture.

Victory Chapel, which now occupies a former tennis club building on the Stop & Shop site, will build at a location on Kidd’s Hill Road in the Industrial Park. The current facility will be demolished to make way for the supermarket.

The church will have a seating capacity of 300 with 125 parking places and a “stacked” parking plan for a few annual occasions that attract more people than usual. The town has suggested access to the church be on Merchants Way instead of Kidds Hill Road, where an emergency access driveway would be located, and that lights be placed on four existing poles on dark Kidds Hill Road.